CWG 2022: The Indian women’s cricket team ended up with the silver medal after a 9-run loss to Australia in the final of the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham on Sunday.

Australia won the toss and decided to bat first. The women from Down Under posted 161/8 in their allotted 20 overs.

Beth Mooney was the top scorer for Australia with 61 runs off 41 balls. Sneh Rana dismissed Beth Mooney in the 18th over. Deepti Sharma took a brilliant catch.

For India, Renuka Singh and Sneh Rana picked up 2 wickets each.

Chasing the target of 162 runs, the Indian team sustained a big blow in the second over in the form of Smriti Mandhana. She was clean bowled by Darcy Brown after scoring 6 runs.

Shefali Verma was given life an over earlier but she could not take advantage of it and was dismissed soon after scoring just 11 runs due to an aerial shot.

Jemima Rodriguez and captain Harmanpreet Kaur tried to steady the Indian innings with a partnership of 96 runs before the former was bowled by Megan Schutt. Harmanpreet scored a brilliant 65 off 43 deliveries before being caught behind off Ashleigh Gardner in the 16th over.

Harmanpreet’s departure virtually sealed the fate of the final as the Indian tailenders choked in front of the accurate Australian bowling, losing 5 wickets in the last 3 overs.

Brief scores:

Australia: 161/8 in 20 overs (Beth Mooney 61; Renuka Singh 2/25, Sneh Rana 2/38) beat India: 152 in 19.3 overs (Harmanpreet Kaur 65; Ashleigh Gardner 3/16, Megan Schutt 2/27)

Playing XIs

Australia: Alyssa Healy (wk), Beth Mooney, Meg Lanning (c), Tahlia McGrath, Rachel Haynes, Ashley Gardner, Grace Harris, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Megan Schutt, Darcy Brown.

India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Deepti Sharma, Yastika Bhatia, Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana, Radha Yadav, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh, Taniya Bhatia (wk)